Death conversation questions
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Teachers will obviously need to use some judgement and sensitivity before using these questions.
Death
- What rituals does your culture have regarding death?
- Are children "protected" from knowing about the death of people they know? What do you think is best?
- What is the legal status of euthanasia in your country?
- Do you think that people have the right to commit suicide? Why/why not?
- Are you able to define a difference between euthanasia and murder?
- How long should doctors keep someone alive who is brain dead?
- How does the Hippocratic oath, with its Primum non nocere ("First, not to harm"), relate to euthanasia?
- If we were to permit euthanasia this would save on the cost of health care. What do you think about this justification?
- Have you thought about what you want your family to do when you die? Have you spoken them about your death?
After death
- There are some imaginative things which you can arrange to happen to your remains after you die. For instance you can have them incorporated into a fireworks display, you can have them compressed into a diamond ring or you can have an oak tree planted over them. Would you like to do any of these things? Which ones and why?
- Alternatively you could have your body (or just your head) frozen in a cryogenic chamber until science can cure you. It's expensive though, and there are doubts about whether your memory would survive. Would you like to do this?
- The scientist and inventor, Ray Kurzweil, thinks he will be able to live a healthy life forever. How would you react to this possibility?
- Some people donate their organs for transplants or to research. What do you think of this? Have you considered the possibility of doing so?
